Disciplines

Social and Economic Geography and Spatial Management

Social and Economic Geography and Spatial Management offered by the Doctoral School of Social Sciences provides opportunities for scientific development in four internally structured fields of research: economic geography, social geography, spatial management and regional and local development. All these fields are linked by the issue of space, both as a basic component of the educational content, and as a key context for the reflections on social, economic, legal and urban issues.

In the course of training, the doctoral student have the opportunity to develop both in terms of research and analysis, including the so-called "groundbreaking theories", as well as in terms of research and application, rooted in the practice of action, e.g. planning, design, management.

Doctoral students have the opportunity to learn about established and state-of-the-art methods of spatial research and analysis, including advanced methods of GIS analysis, methods of qualitative and quantitative social research, methods of research used in the field of economics and econometrics, methods of planning and urban planning research and analysis. This knowledge becomes the basis for creating cognitively interesting research programmes, often important in terms of their implementation.

Communication and Media Studies

Research in the discipline of social communication and media studies is conducted in two areas.

The first is devoted to such issues as the importance of communication in social processes, tabloidization of political discourse in news broadcasts, the role of the media in building civil society, mediatisation of social life, public relations and political marketing, analysis of media content - press, radio, television, information portals and social media. Research on populism, which has been conducted for several years, deserves special attention.

Another important area of research within this discipline is cognitive science: multidisciplinary research of the mind and cognitive processes, aiming to develop a uniform picture of the structure and operation of the cognitive mind.

Very modern infrastructure available to researchers, i.e. eye trackers, EEG, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator (TMS), Content Analysis System for Television Programming (CAST) are certainly an additional incentive for future doctoral students.

Political Science and Public Administration

Doctoral studies and research carried out by the PhD student within the discipline of political science and administration aim at the formation of specialists who will be able to successfully work at universities as well as in government units, local government units, social organizations or run their own business. Areas of interest for doctoral students include political thought, issues related to state systems and constitutionalism, contemporary political systems, international relations, including foreign policy, studies on political conditions of particular regions and sub-regions of the world, global and asymmetric threats, local administration, state management, international and national security policy, political systems, political culture and diplomacy.

The individual research project and the problems researched by the doctoral students take into account both their research interests and the current state of research. Tutors and scientific supervisors ensure appropriate methodological approach to the problems researched by the students.

Law

Doctoral students acquire knowledge, skills and competences in legal sciences and have the opportunity to prepare a dissertation forming the basis for the award of a doctoral degree in the social sciences in the discipline of legal sciences.

Law is classified as social sciences and includes so-called legal doctrine, general legal sciences and historical legal sciences.

Specific legal sciences (legal doctrine) address the validity and seek for the interpretation of the law within various branches of law, as well as research socio-technical issues related to the achievement of intended social goals. The branches of law include, among others: civil law (substantive and procedural), criminal law (substantive and procedural), administrative law (substantive and procedural).

The general sciences of law reflect on formal and real aspects of legal phenomena within the framework of legal theory, philosophy of law and methodology of legal sciences. These sciences deal, among other things, with the ways of knowing law, the determination of what law is, the rules of its exegesis and the axiology of law.

The historical legal sciences are the history of law and the history of political and legal doctrines. They study the history of political systems and legal systems as well as the development of political and legal ideas and their influence on the formation of legal institutions.

Sociology

Education in sociology has one of the longest traditions in Poland – it began in the interwar period when Florian Znaniecki and a team of academics in the Department of Sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań laid the foundations for the creation of one of the key branches of Polish academic sociology.

The contemporary profile of doctoral education continues this tradition. However, the scale of this education and its specific character reflect more the contemporary social scienceshttp://socjologia.amu.edu.pl/new/doktoranci/program-studiowTwo streams of training are offered – research using statistical tools and research on culture and everyday life (the latter appealing to the greatest numbers of doctoral students). The Archive of Research on Everyday Lifehttp://archiwum.edu.pl/is one of the research areas pursued by academics and doctoral students. It serves as a testing ground for the preparation of dissertations and carrying out practical work.

Pedagogy

Pedagogy, a field of social sciences, studies upbringing and education of human beings and broadly understood education during their whole life. Pedagogy is an interdisciplinary science, remaining in relationships with psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, political science, law, as well as medicine and economics. It is characterised by a multitude of theoretical currents and directions of thinking about man and society, as well as a multi-paradigm approach. It not only aims to learn about the mechanisms of human development, but also studies the creation of various support systems in this area and the empowerment of the individual. The aim of pedagogy is not only a scientific diagnosis of reality, but often constructive social change. Pedagogical research uses diverse research methods, both quantitative and qualitative. Scientific problems are analysed at two levels - micro (individual) and macro (social trends). The different sub-disciplines of pedagogy allow understanding the multicontextual relations between human beings and their development and the surrounding socio-cultural reality.

Psychology

The PhD programme prepares students to conduct independent scientific and research activities in the discipline of psychology. The programme consists of compulsory and optional classes and includes preparation of an individual research plan under the guidance of a supervisor. Compulsory and optional classes include education in the field of: (1) contemporary concepts and research directions in psychology and related disciplines; (2) research methodology, including advanced research methods and data analysis techniques; (3) principles of research financing and raising funds for research; (4) ethical conditions of conducting scientific and research activities; (5) methodology of teaching at the university level and use of contemporary technologies in education; (6) principles of scientific communication and popularization of knowledge. The programme is geared towards educating both future researchers in the field of psychology and those who consider obtaining a doctoral degree in this discipline as part of a professional career outside science.